Above: One of my small kid's palettes that I carry all the time. This one had Daniel Smith Watercolors in it. Read below for more details. Click on the image to view an enlargement.
In January I was at a gas station filling my tank and the nozzle malfunctioned spewing gasoline all over my boots, pants, and the bottom part of my winter coat.
Safety Tip: Dry out completely before you get in the car and start it, because even static electric sparks from opening and closing the door or touching the fabric of your car seat (if you don't have leather and I don't because I think fabric is warmer in the winter) can turn you into a fireball at this point.
Well, the short part of the story is that my lovely Gortex boots were totally saturated and are toast. (Happily, not burnt toast, but they are non-boots now as they still smell after 6 weeks, so strongly that I can't wear them—and of course no one carries this style any longer.)
When I got home I stripped off everything and it all went into the wash, over and over and over. (Dick rinsed it all out first in the laundry tub before putting it through the 3 cycles. And I should also point out that we have an extra rinse as the default on our washer, so that's six dousings as it were.)
Both of us thought we'd emptied all the pockets, but I'd just gone to Como Zoo a couple days before this incident and had put all my supplies in my pockets so I wouldn't need to take a bag. The above palette didn't get removed and so it went through the wash all those times.
The watercolors of this closed palette (and it didn't open during the wash, or at least we don't think so as it was solidly closed) almost completely washed out in the process, and my Bounty paper towel sort of disintegrated and then felted back together (during the spin cycle) into something else entirely wonderful attached all around the palette. This was an older palette and the pans were about half full.
We use Tide Free and none of the other clothes (dark/cold) washed with the coat were stained by the paint.
OK, now you know. Isn't that cool?
